Public prosecutor requests court to sentence human rights defender Oleg Orlov* to imprisonment

A public prosecutor requested court to sentence human rights defender Oleg Orlov*, accused of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces, to two years and eleven months of imprisonment.

Today, diplomats from the embassies of 16 countries and the Ambassador of the European Union (EU) came to attend a hearing of the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow to support Oleg Orlov*, the co-chair of the “Memorial” Centre for Defence of Human Rights.

The public prosecutor believes that the aggravating circumstance is confirmed, that is, the commission of a crime motivated by ideological hatred, taking into account “the commission of a crime via the Internet.”

Oleg Orlov* has stated that he treats the trial in his case as directed against the human rights community as a whole. “I can state that Russia has become a totalitarian state,” Oleg Orlov* said.

According to the human rights defender, the state controls all aspects of people’s life, which is expressed in the ban on books by Russian writers and the “LGBTQ community,” as well as the ban on quoting foreign agents.

The reason for the pacifist publication was not ideological hatred, as the prosecutor’s office suggests, but a protest against the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine and dissatisfaction with political repression, the human rights defender notes.

Advocate Katerina Tertukhina rejected the attempt to attribute a motive of “ideological hatred” to Oleg Orlov*. According to the advocate, the motive for his statements was disagreement with the decisions of the authorities.

Katerina Tertukhina has emphasized that laws enshrine the right of people to express their critical opinions.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.